VIDEO: Danny ‘Dan the Sausageman’ House awarded Small Biz award in D.C.

On Monday, April 30, Burien’s own Danny ‘Dan the Sausageman’ House was awarded as the 2018 Small Business Person of the Year for the state of Washington at the US Institute of Peace in the other Washington, D.C.:

“I am honored and humbled,” Danny told The B-Town Blog. “There are a ton of great businesses here, and being celebrated next to them was very memorable…and I loved that ‘Burien’ was on my name tag!”

As we previously reported, Danny was given the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2018 Washington State Small Business Person of the Year in March.

Founded in 1988, Dan the Sausageman has grown from a local store to a national retailer by selling his gourmet gift boxes featuring summer sausages and other food products.

House spent the first 22 years of his career delivering his products door-to-door, and the first 27 years as the sole employee. In 2017, he embraced online retail which increased his net income by more than 6,000 percent and enabled him to employ a team of nine employees.

“Dan is an amazing example of why every business owner should at least explore the option of online retail,” SBA Seattle District Director Kerrie Hurd said. “By increasing sales on a national and global level, he is able to create more local jobs and strengthen his community by using proceeds from those sales to support local scholarships and charitable efforts. Small business can do big things in the online marketplace.”

The SBA Small Business Person of the Year award – part of National Small Business Week April 29-May 5, 2018 – recognizes small business owners who demonstrate staying power and substantiated history as an established business with at least three years of business operation. Winners must also show growth in net worth and business expansion, increase in jobs and sales, innovativeness of products or services, response to adversity and contributions to community-oriented projects.

“It’s the American dream. Look what you can do. A pencil, a sausage, a notebook … pick up anything and you can start going door to door selling something and you can take it to wherever you want to go in life,” House said. “I care about the community, and the local schools especially; this helps me to give back to those kids and make my community a stronger place.”

House’s success has allowed him to give back to his community as well. During the past five years, he has donated more than 1,000 meals to a local school fundraising event, matched local community donations for the last three years for full-ride scholarships for local trade school students, and donated more than $41,000 to local events, foundations and fundraisers.

“National Small Business Week is a time to recognize the impact of small businesses in the Pacific Northwest by sharing their inspirational stories of success, resilience and determination,” SBA Regional Administrator Jeremy Field said. “It’s my honor to celebrate the entrepreneurs who use innovation to solve problems, create jobs and make a difference in our local communities.”

Small Business Person of the Year winners from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam will converge in Washington, D.C. April 29-30 when one of them will be selected as the National Small Business Person of the Year.

A celebration honoring local SBA winners from Washington state and the SBA Seattle District – which serves the state of Washington and northern Idaho – will be May 3, 2018. Other SBA local awards that will be recognized at the celebration include the Small Business Person of the Year, Exporter of the Year, Encore Entrepreneur of the Year, Family-Owned Small Business of the Year, Millennial Entrepreneur of the Year, Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year and Small Business Champion of the Year.

Each year since 1963, the President has issued a proclamation calling for the celebration of National Small Business Week. SBA recognizes outstanding small business owners for their personal successes and contributions to our nation.

For more information about National Small Business Week, visit www.sba.gov/nsbw.